Holyoke

Our Holyoke chapter was founded in 2003. Historically a city of working-class immigrants, Holyoke was once the world’s biggest paper manufacturer. Waves of Irish, French-Canadian, Germans, Poles, and Jews arrived and worked alongside each other in the paper mills, organizing together to fight for better working conditions. After World War II, many factory owners moved their operations to the South in search of low wages, weak unions, less taxes, and fewer workers’ rights, and Holyoke’s residents faced crippling unemployment.

Starting in the 1950s, Puerto Ricans and other Latinos began to migrate to Holyoke. Today, Holyoke is 50% Latino and has the largest percentage Puerto Rican population of any city in the US, outside Puerto Rico itself. We are proud to be a majority Black and Brown city today, rebuilding working-class power as we revitalize Holyoke and make it an epicenter of new green jobs.

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Campaigns

With our partners in Raise Up MA, we are launching a campaign to raise $1 billion in state revenue through a constitutional amendment that will restore the commons by requiring millionaires to pay their fair share.

In 2014, we closed the last coal plant in the state. Now, with 40,000 tons of toxic ash seeped into our water and our farmlands, we continue the fight to ensure a thorough clean-up of the site and new jobs for Holyoke.

Victories

2014

Won Earned Sick Time

Earned sick time for all workers in Massachusetts, allowing 1 million more people to take time off when they’re sick or need to care for a family member.

2014

Increased the Minimum Wage

We increased the state minimum wage in 1999, 2006, and 2014, making Massachusetts’ the highest state minimum wage in the U.S.

2014

Shut Down the Mt. Tom Coal Plant

Shut down the state’s last coal plant, which had contributed for years to Holyoke’s poor air quality and high rates of asthma.